Introducing Scheduled Test Link with Waiting Room

Scheduled test link with waiting room has been one of the most awaited feature for our Education customers.

Why we built it?

Waiting room helps prevent cheating and also helps manage exams in a better way. Below are some of the problems it solve:

• Students had the flexibility to start their tests anytime during the access window. Many students intentionally started the exam late so that they can collaborate and get the questions leaked from other students who started the test early.
• Students were intentionally disconnecting their internet and using the extra time to cheat and/or solve questions.
• Eduction Institutes are used to offline exam model where you report at the exam center, get your ID checked, wait in the hall and at the specified time, papers are distributed and the exam starts. The exam ends at a specified time as well.

What did we build?

We’ve built a new way of scheduling assessments which is closer to the offline exams model. Below are some things we’ve built:

• Reporting time window – setup the time when students are requested to report for the exam. Beyond this window, students will not be allowed to take the assessment. This is similar to the offline world.
• Test Start/End Time – you can setup the start time for the test and the test will start at the same time for all the students. There is an ‘option’ to setup the test end time as well and at the defined time, test will finish for all students automatically.
• Waiting Room – starting the test at the same time meant there had to be a provision for a holding area or a waiting room. As students get authorized, they ‘wait’ in the waiting room which is a page with some customizable instructions and test start timer displayed prominently. Once the time is up, the test starts for all students at the same time.
• A new type of test link creation has been introduced – Scheduled – in addition to the existing ‘Access time’ based links. Scheduled links allow for scheduling the reporting time, test start time and test end time (optional).